1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multifunction system and its control method for outputting materials used in a conference based on conference reservation information.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method of distributing materials to be used in a conference, a method of physically distributing materials printed ahead of time by the conference organizer at the time of conference is known. Further, a method of sending electronic files of materials via E-mail to attendees, and have the attendees print them out prior to the conference is known.
Further, in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2005-301895, a system which performs on-line reservation of a conference room via a network using a terminal such as a PC is presented. In this system, output of the material is performed at the time of the conference in the output apparatus located within the conference room based on the reservation information of the conference room.
However, these conventional technologies have the following problems. For example, in the method where the conference organizer prints out the material ahead of time, when a large number of copies needs to be prepared, the burden on the conference organizer becomes extremely heavy. Further, among the attendees there may be individuals wishing to check the material prior to the conference, and it was difficult to address these types of request. Other methods, such as distributing the material in electronic form through an E-mail or a shared folder and have each attendee print out the material, is also available. However, this method is useful for checking the material prior to the conference, but does not allow the conference organizer to check whether the attendees have printed out the material prior to the conference, which ultimately necessitates the organizer to prepare the material. Further, in the system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2005-301895, although it is possible to print out the material using the output apparatus within the conference room in accordance with the reserved conference time, it is not possible to check the material prior to the conference.
Further, when there are confidential matters within the distributed material, a situation may arise in which the material cannot be distributed to all attendees. In such a case, the conference organizer was required to go through a burdensome task of checking the rank of the attendees, and distributing the material according to their ranks.